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Tasty Words

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September 06, 2007, 10:23
wordcrafter
Tasty Words
Enough of "collections"! Last we looked at "savory collectives": food terms that have become collective nouns. This week we'll look at terms of tasty food.

bonne bouche– a delicious morsel, as a treat (also used figuratively, as in the last two quotes)
[French, "good mouth"]
September 07, 2007, 09:43
wordcrafter
Ambrosia and nectar, the food and drink of the Greek and Roman gods, have come to mean respectively any delicious food and drink. [Sometimes confusing food with drink!]

ambrosia – something very pleasing to taste or smell (also, a dessert of oranges and shredded coconut)
nectar – any delicious wine or other drink (now esp. a kind of sweetened fruit juice)

Each word is rooted in Greek for the concept that the gods are immortal:
ambrosios,, from a- "not" + mbrotos, related to mortos "mortal"
nektar, said to be nek- death (as in necrosis – death of most or all of the cells in an organ)+ -tar overcoming

I’ll illustrate each with the rare adjective-version, which comes in a variety of forms. Some recent quotes first. And now, older quotes showing some variant forms.
September 08, 2007, 09:41
wordcrafter
gustable1. capable of being tasted 2. pleasant to the taste; toothsome. (We’ve previously seen the word "toothsome".)

I do like the first quote on this rarely-used word. Who would have anticipated that cannibalism could have a positive effect on a society’s morals?!
September 08, 2007, 10:16
tsuwm
> more eager to detect a gustable neighbor's mortal infringement of law.

I'm not so sure that (with the emPHAsis added) this would be such a positive.
September 09, 2007, 09:25
wordcrafter
sapid – (chiefly N. Amer.) 1. flavorsome 2. pleasant or interesting
[Latin sapidus, from sapere to taste]Yummy! Are we hungry now?
September 09, 2007, 09:39
Robert Arvanitis
The "sap" of taste becomes the "sip" when negated, as with "insipid," the antonym of sapid.

Are there other such vowel shifts, in negations or elsewhere.


RJA
September 10, 2007, 11:12
wordcrafter
Two words today meaning a fancy or choice dish: one complimentary, the other usually contemptuous.

viands1. foods, esp. very choice or delicious dishes (the singular form exists, but is very rare) 2. provisions, food
[At root a complimentary word, for it comes from Latin vivenda ‘things to be lived on’. (Ultimately, from Latin for ‘to live’]

kickshaw – a fancy dish in cookery (chiefly with contemptuous force: a fancified French 'something', not one of those good old English dishes.)
[This word sounds Anglo-Saxon, but is in fact a mangled mispronunciation of French quelque chose, ‘something’.]Kickshaw also has another meaning, illustrated by this quote:
September 11, 2007, 08:19
Robert Arvanitis
Interesting that both "viands" and "victuals" derive from life.

From Etymological dictionary:
victualia "provisions," noun use of plural of victualis "of nourishment," from victus "livelihood, food, sustenance," from base of vivere "to live" (see vital).


RJA